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I joined the Royal Navy and served as a joiner with BMU 47 from 1943 to 1946. This was a Maintenance Repair Unit —it included carpenters, joiners, welders and mechanics. When I received my ‘HO’ — my call up — I reported to Portsmouth barracks and after a short time found my self in Irvine, Scotland, repairing landing craft.

We’d pull 3 landing draft up for service at a time. The Wrens would scrape the bottom f the boats. They’d be dressed head to foot in mackintoshes — they looked quite a sight! Then I moved down to Brighton for while, then to Leeds, where I did a welding course before returning to Westcliffe on Sea where we stayed in the commandeered houses down on the sea front.

Then we go the notice to mobilise and got onto the trains. We stopped at Ealing, and then went up to Liverpool where we changed for Greenock. Once at Greenock, we embarked on the troop ship, Monarch of Bermuda. We stayed for a while in harbour while the minesweepers cleared the area and then the convoy moved out. We sailed to Gibraltar where we changed our escort and went on to Alexandria. Here we got onto another, very fast, troopship, the Strathmore, and sailed all the way to Bombay.

We stayed in Bombay for a week in the transit camp before being moved down to Mandapam, right on the southern tip of India, where you cross to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). We were there about 18 months, repairing ships and landing craft. We had all the landing craft from D-Day - they came in under their own steam and mainly needed repairs to their engines and deck plates.

We heard about VE day, but we were still stuck out in India waiting for the war in the East to end. There wasn’t much going on in camp — we’d watch films on the canteen wall, had a few shows and such. There was just sand round about. Nothing special. One day though, I left the camp on leave and came back to find there was a real ding-dong going on. Our troops had dropped the bomb on Japan and the war was over.

It took us a while to get home. I spent a couple of months in Bombay waiting with everyone else for a troopship to take us home. We didn’t get out much — so much of the city was out of bounds. There was a lot of unrest amongst the Indians at the time and the Indian Navy went on strike at one point. Still I made it in the end and sailed back home. We docked at Southampton and I was demobbed at Cosham Barracks in 1946. Then I went home to my wife, who I’d met in the Navy and married in 1944. We had 60 years together.

This story was entered by Jenni Waugh, ´óÏó´«Ã½ People’s War Outreach Officer, at the Severn Valley Railway on behalf of Mr FG Wickens. Mr Wickens is aware of and accepts the site’s terms and conditions.

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